284 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
thousand times less common among woodpeckers than 
they are among men, the redhead would be declared an 
outlaw. He has been proved to be a hen roost robber, a 
murderer and a cannibal. In Florida he has sucked hen's 
eggs. In Iowa he has been seen to kill a duckling. There 
is a record in Ohio that he pecked holes in the walls of 
the eaves to swallows' nests and stole all the eggs, and 
that he was finally killed in the act of robbing & setting 
hen's nest. Within the space of fifteen years, from Mon- 
tana, Georgia, Colorado, New York and Ontario, in 
addition to the records mentioned already from Florida. 
Ohio and Iowa, come accounts of his stealing bird eggs 
and murdering and eating other birds. The evidence is in- 
disputable. 
"It is charity to suppose that this is the work of 
natural criminals, or of degenerate, underwitted or de- 
mented woodpeckers. Why should there not be such in- 
dividuals among birds? One point is certain; so notable a 
habit could not long escape detection, since it is a barnyard 
crime. He who robs hens' nests gets caught — if he is a 
bird. Either these occurrences are ven- rare, not seen 
because of their extreme rarity, or they indicate a new 
custom just coming in. And the same is true of the 
habit of boarding food. It is rare, or it is new. 
"The frequency of such occurrences can be determined 
only by observation, but the time of their origin might 
be approximated in another waj^. If we could fix the 
date when the bird could not have done what he is now 
doing for simple lack of opportunity, we might say that 
the habit has been acquired since a certain date — as we 
said of the English sparrow eating maize, of the chimney 
swift nesting in chimneys, and the cliff swallow building 
under the eaves. But Ave have no such help in the case 
of the redhead, which has never been without opportunities 
to get birds' eggs and to kill other birds. 
'"But there is a parallel case in another species, where 
the date of an acquired habit can be proved. In Florida 
the redbellied woodpecker has earned the name Orange 
Borer and Orange Sapsucker, because he eats oranges. 
It is true that he is not chargSd with doing damage, be- 
cause he attacks only the overripe and unmarketable 
fruit; it is known that the habit is not general yet, for 
even where the birds are abundant only a single bu'd or a 
pair will be found eating oranges, and always the same 
pair, proving that it is a habit not yet learned by all of 
the species. Close observers declare, too, that it is but 
a few years since the bird took up the habit; and finally 
we know that this must be the case, for, though the 
wild orange was introduced by the Spaniards, the sweet 
fruit was not extensively cultivated until recently. Here 
is a habit which undoubtedly has been acquired witWn 
twenty years or so, which will in all probability increase 
until, instead of being the exception, it is the rule. 
"Why may not the redhead's occasional cannibalism, 
unless this is mere individual degeneracy, and his more 
common custom of hoarding, be habits which he is 
acquiring? Why, indeed, may not the California wood- 
pecker's distinguishing trait be a habit which began like 
these among a few b:rds here and there, wiser or more 
progressive than the rest, and which in time became gen- 
eral and established? Why may not the two observed in- 
stances of the Lewis' woodpecker be examples of a 
similar habit just beginning? The very differences in 
their methods point to that explanation. The Lewis' 
woodpecker that had seen the Carpenter's work tried to 
imitate him ; the one that lived outside his range adopted 
a way of his own, unnoticed before among woodpeckers, 
and shelled and quartered his nuts before he stored them." 
The volum.e is charmingly illustrated by five full-page 
colored plates drawn by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, as life- 
like and as true to nature as his drawings always are, and 
by many cuts in the text by Mr. Jno. L. Ridgeway. The 
colored plates appear to be made by the so-called three- 
color process, and the colors are not quite as successful 
as one might wish. 
Mrs. Eckstorm requires no introduction to readers 
of Forest and- Stream, for, as Fannie Hardy, 
before her marriage, she contributed to these col- 
umns many delightful letters of life and travel, 
in the Elaine woods. The daughter of Manly Hardy, and 
brought up under the tuition of that keen woodsman and 
ardent naturalist, her early training was such as to 
especially fit her for the work, to which, it may be hoped,, 
ishe has now definitely set her hand — the writing of na- 
ture books. 
The Bird Book* 
"The Bird Book:," by Mrs. Famiie Hardy Eckstoms, hsts 
just been issued by Messrs. D. C. Heath & Co. as one of 
their supplementary readers. It appears at a happy time,, 
just before the coming of the birds, and should be a most; 
useful introduction to field study, which it is especiany 
designed to encourage. The ends which Mr.s-. Eckstorm; 
has held in view in arranging the books aste twoi She 
has striven to adapt its study to the school year, and sO' 
to present it that when the pupil begins field work he shall 
be able to do this with some general i^fea of what i's' wonfllV 
observing. 
The volume is planned quite differently from most of 
the bird books with which of late years we have become 
so familiar. It is divided into four parts, of which Fart I. 
treats of "Water Bird? in Their Homes," Part II. of 
"Structure and Comparison," Part III. of "Problems of 
Bird Life," and Part IV. of "Some Common Land Birds." 
Of these the first and the fourth have to do with living 
birds, their surroundings and their modes of life, while. 
Parts 11. and HI. deal w-ith questions of structure and 
with certain broader principles of zoology. 
The method of the book is a happy one. The reader is ■ 
introduced first to the bird living its life, and is told 
how the grebe, the loon, the gull, the petrel and many 
other birds pass their days and nights ; how they gather 
their food, rear their young and avoid their enemies. 
And these accounts take us to many different lands — 
New England and Alaska, Florida and Labrador, Cali- 
fornia and the Great Plains. 
Having become interested in what these birds do and sc 
r.a the birds themselves, we are naturally interested in 
jeir characteristics, and wish to find out how one dilTers. 
ixom another, but first_ of all how birds differ from all 
other animals. Following this come the questions why- 
are all these things as they are, on what is classification in 
birds founded, how do birds receive their Latin names. 
together with the answer to the three great questions— 
which the birds care far inore about than they do about 
the names which men give them — the problems of food, of 
safety and of reproduction. Following these come brief 
but pregnant chapters on protection by color, distribution 
and migration. 
The fourth part treats of certain habits of many oi 
the land birds, but does not profess to give life histories 
nearly so full as those given in Part I. Finally, in the 
appendices arc very short divisions on the zoogeographical 
divisions of the world, migration, hints on observing 
birds and on identifying living birds that are strange to 
the observer. Then the book closes with a list of useful 
bird books. 
It is quite impossible in the limits of such a notice 
to do justice to this admirable volume. From title page 
to finis it is packed full of information, given in short 
chapters and in such extremely attractive fashion that it 
cannot fail to interest any one who may read it. Much 
of the matter also is original, much of it novel, and all 
of it so happily ptit — often from an entirely new and un- 
expected standpoint — that the volume is certain to be very 
effective and to do a great deal of good. It may truly 
be said that it is likely to be as interesting to the prac- 
tical ornithologist as to the boy or girl who. knowing 
nothing about birds, would like to know about them. 
Our older readers must still have a warm jiersonal in- 
terest in the writer who, as Fann'e Hardy, a few years 
ago contributed to the Forest and Stream a notable series, 
of papers on the Maine woods. Her vivacious letters de- 
scriptive of canoeing excursions with her father, Manly 
Hardy, were characterized by a rare knowledge of wood- 
craft; and when she wrote of the vexed and perplexing 
problems of Maine game protection, there was shown 
throughout such a sympathetic insight into actual condi- 
tions as to conimand respect. The man of the Maine 
MRS. KANNIE HARDY ECKSTORM. 
woods — ^the httater, trapper, guide, who was confronted 
by a fastcoonsfog changed order of things, who found it 
hard to gixe .u,^ the old ways and to face the new, who 
held stoutly to what he believed were his natural and 
inalienable rights, who was misunderstood or perhaps 
willfully slandered by the outside world — this man who 
could not speak for himself, found a friend and an advo- 
cate and champion of Fannie Hardy. No one may know 
the real history of those times who shall not 'have read 
her letters then published. 
It is because of this interest in one so well known to 
Forest and Stream readers that we have asked permis- 
sion to print the following personal notes written by Mrs. 
Eckstorm at the request of her publishers, Messrs. Hough- 
ton, Mifflin & Co. 
I was born in Maine some thirty-five years ago, and 
remained here on intimate terms with all outdoors until 
I went to school and college. From Smith College I 
carried away with my degree some of the rewards of hard 
work and some of the satisfaction of profitable leisure. 
Among the latter are to be numbered long and usually 
solitary walks in the woods and over the mountains; the 
organizing of the Smith College Audubon Society with 
Miss Florence Merriam, as recently related by her in 
"Bird Lore," when John Burroughs came to help us, and 
the rummaging of all of the old historical collections and 
old French narrations that were accessible. 
Returning home, I acted two years as superintendent 
of schools, and then went into a publishing house to see 
what it was like. And in the course of timq I went to the 
Pacific coast and was married. 
As a clergyman's wife in the far West and later in the 
East again, I had little leisure for any of my old avoca- 
tions, though my husband enjoyed them all and en- 
couraged the preparation of the books about to be issued. 
He was an excellent Eaturalist, and our few outings were 
spent in woods and fields, trout fishing and watching the 
birds. Since his death, I have once more come back to 
ray old haunts in Maine. 
Yet it is the first period of my life that accounts for 
my tastes. As I recall it, it seems to me that few could 
;iiave enjoyed a childhood so nearly ideal. It was all 
fairy land and romance, out of school hours. Most of 
the people I knew had met adventures or done large 
things — sea captains, hunters, trappers, missionaries, 
travelers to all lands. Each one told his story and .went 
his way. The books on the shelves were books of ad- 
venture — Capt. Cook, Moffat, Livingstone, Sir Samuel 
Baker, Kane, Hall, and every other notable Northern 
voyage and African exploration as it appeared. And be- 
fore I could read, Virgil was a nursery tale and Homer 
a fairy story. All the time a world as wild as theirs lay 
just outside, and men built on these large epic Hues — 
trappers, moose htmters, deer stalkers, scalers, lumber- 
men, river drivers, crack watermen — were coming and 
going and breaking bread with us. When I teased for a . 
stor}^ I got, it might be, the "Trojan Horse," or Ulysses 
bending his great bow, or Thoreau's guide, Joe Aitteon, 
going to his own death in the rush and welter of Island 
Falls to save his boat's crew. Everything was of heroic 
size. King Arthur and Jack Mann, Robin Hood and 
Jock Darling were names of about equal weight and 
vividness, with the odds somewhat in favor of the one 
who could walk in to dinner and speak for himself as 
an abler man than the one who, for all his valiant deeds, 
had yielded and become a ghost. 
It was my father's business that brought such a di- 
versity of woods life to our doors. He and his father 
before him had dealt in all the products of the woods; 
had hunted, fished and trapped all over the Maine forests 
and knew most intimately everything that lived in the 
woods. With sixty years of such life behind me, it was 
impossible not to appreciate all the fine points of a bear 
skin a moose hide, a snowshoe or a canoe. Such 
knowledge was my inheritance. And I was taught as 
Avell the tricks of woodcraft that all hunters use; to know 
how to tell who caught a lot of fur by the way the skins 
were stretched and handled; and something of the dif- 
ferences almost" inconceivablj' fine, but which my father 
could tell with all but magical correctness, the very 
section of cotrntrj' where a given mink or sable skin was 
taken. 
Then there were the Indians, who came constantly, 
•often a score of them in a day. They told me stories, 
brought me baskets and little birch bark or carved cedar 
canoes, and made a pet and plaything of me. I lovied 
them all, without regard to comeliness, though perhaps 
ray favorite was one of a scarred countenance, who ex- 
plained that "She 'n' I 'n 'nother fellow we b'en fight; she 
bit it my nose off," meaning thereby that only two had 
joined battle, and that the nose was still in evidence, 
though very much damaged. With all the white hunters 
I was the daughter of the regiment. I levied tribute of 
spruce gum, and if my doll needed furs some lonely 
trapper far in the wilderness was sure to remember to 
save the skins of the weasels that entered his traps for 
a gift to me. 
When I played school it was with fox skins stuffed with 
hay for my pupils. I remember how their black legs 
used to hang down and their pointed noses would stick 
ttp as they were ranged in line. I was permitted to play 
with all the skins except the black and silver foxes. 
Mink, sable with orange throats, otter, fisher, beaver, 
lynx and bear, I could roll and tumble among them as 
much as I desired, though the best fun was to sHde 
down a great pile of foxes — a thousand or tnore in a heap 
sometimes — as they lay waiting the sem.i-annual ship- 
ment to London. And in all the packing, pressing and 
finishing of the bales I was permitted to help. 
So my earliest associations were chiefly with the mam- 
mals. Birds came later. It was not till I was ten years 
old or so that my father began to collect and study birds. 
As I was his inseparable companion and adoring fol- 
lower, it was inevitable that I should do as he did. For 
many years we worked together, making a representative 
collection of North American birds, doing most of the 
taxiderrnal work ourselves. And continually we were 
driving, walking or canoeing all through the woods near 
home and in the deep woods gathering notes of their 
habits. To grow up with a science under the tutelage 
of an accomplished naturalist and in surroundings adapted 
to one's pursuits is a good fortune that comes to few. 
So I had a childhood rarely happy and complete, nor 
can I think of anything more likely to gratify that 
"healthy curiosity" of which you speak than an account 
of these earlier years. 
A Pest of Band-Tailed Pijeons* 
Sheboygan Falxs, Wis., March ig.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I inclose a clipping from the Milwaukee Daily 
News of an article copied from the San Francisco Bulletin 
regarding a pest of pigeons : 
"Immense flocks of wild pigeons have made, their ap- 
pearance in Santa Barbara county. The birds have never 
before been known to come down into the valleys. _ In 
former years they have always inhabited the mountains. 
They are so plentiful in the farming districts that they 
have proved a nuisance, and on many ranches poisoned 
wheat has been thrown out to them. 
"In many sections of the country the birds have entirely 
destroyed newly planted fields of grain, and in some in- 
stances the farmers have been compelled to replant their 
fields, as the birds come down in large flocks and devour 
the seed before it can be harrowed into the ground. The 
birds have furnished great sport for local sportsmen,, who 
are after the pests in large numbers." 
I would like to ask if you know anything about the 
authenticity of this story, and whether they are the sarne 
kind of wild pigeons that were so plentiful about this 
part of the country twenty or twenty-five years ago. 
Bluish gray in color, some parts pale gray, green reflec- 
tions on sides of neck, and breast purplish red. Over 
twenty years ago they were so thick here that at times 
they would obscure the sun from view when large flocks 
were flying over, but for matiy years they have been ex- 
tinct through the country, as far as I have learned, except 
an occasional mention in Forest and Stream of a stray 
few in some remote section. 
W. C. Thomas. 
[These California birds are the band-tailed pigeon 
(Calumba fascieta), found from the Rocky Mountains tg> 
the Pacific coast. They are not the same bird that was 
formerly so abundant east of the Mississippi — the pas- 
senger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius).] 
